Players Fear For Riftbound As New Legend Makes Up Huge Portion Of Tournament Meta

Published Nov 9, 2026, 3:31 PM EST Niall (pronounced Ny-ul) is a UK-based writer who has been writing about Magic: The Gathering throughout his entire career, with everything from new set breakdowns and individual deck guides to offering his opinions on the state of formats and the general direction of the iconic TCG. Niall also has a rich history covering triple-A releases, sports games, and PC hardware. The Riftbound European Regional Championship just wrapped up in Stuttgart, Germany, and by all accounts, the event was a success for the game, but two distinct controversies over the weekend left a mark on the event for many players. One involved a notoriously slow-playing participant who questioned the judges' quality and how the rules were implemented, while another was much larger in scale and related to the share percentage of certain Legends leading decks in the tournament. The latter point led to a final eight where two Legends accounted for seven decks, drawing comparisons to the domination of certain archetypes in Magic: The Gathering in recent years. Update: As this story went live, game director Dave Guskin confirmed that Riftbound bans are due to be announced this Friday, with an effective date TBC. Slow-Playing Pro Angers Riftbound Competitors As Judges Accused Of Being Unprepared The first flashpoint from the Riftbound ERC revolved around a player called Templar, who was accused on day one of deliberately slow-playing to run out the clock on opponents, so they could score points late in the game and leave opponents in a position where they couldn't respond. Worse still, Templar reached a record 8-1, with time concerns in every match, before he was eventually disqualified from the event. There are some unsubstantiated rumors floating around on Reddit that Templar wasn't actually disqualified for his slow play, and it was instead for marking cards, another huge TCG no-no, but most players commenting on the situation believe it was for the slow play, and they're also demanding a follow-up punishment. After Koko Lopez's ban last month, players are now calling for an example to be made of Templar, with a swift, long ban. If it's possible to prove that Templar was indeed intentionally slow-playing, and their deck was built for this exact purpose, we can see a reality where a ban is handed out, although it would likely be less than what was given to Koko Lopez, which was a much more flagrant breaking of long-standing rules and dishonesty. Criticism is also being directed at the judges, who were asked to address pace-of-play issues in previous rounds, with players documenting how poorly some judges handled the situation and repeatedly warning Templar to speed up without taking formal action. TCG metas are weird, but they come and go with every game. For Riftbound right now, Riven is a problem, and while card bans are expected soon to help address it before it develops further, the numbers from Stuttgart are telling. On day one, 126 decks were Riven decks; that's 43.3% of all decks at the event. The number of Riven decks on day two fell to 47, but that was still 37% of the remaining field. Finally, in the top eight, four of the players were running Riven decks, meaning the percentage was back up to an even 50, and it just showcases the game in a negative light, because from the outside looking in, it appears as though there is little creativity in the strategy of the game, and players end up playing with cards they feel like they have to play with, rather than ones they want to play with. Ultimately, a Kennen player, Evanshrim, won the event; Kennen was the third most popular Legend at the event, with 44 total decks on day one. Outside of the top three Legends (Kai'sa being the remaining top three Legend) there were very few Legends with a meaningful following, and given how young the game is, that's quite disappointing. Riot will surely know this and will be working to balance the meta as soon as possible, especially with the first full year of tournaments now in the books, but the sooner these changes are implemented, the better.